Baillieu marks out green battlefield

By Mathew Murphy and Paul Austin

May 12, 2006 — 10.00am

LIBERAL leader Ted Baillieu has moved to boost the party's social and environmental credentials, pledging his support for voluntary euthanasia and warning that the channel-deepening project should not go ahead if it will damage Port Phillip Bay.

He also called for limits on greenhouse gases being emitted from Hazelwood power station and said a Liberal government would support wind farms provided they had support and were not built in pristine coastal areas.

He told The Age he was a strong supporter of voluntary euthanasia but he would not seek to make it law unless there was widespread backing.

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He stands by his comments as state Liberal president a decade ago, when he praised the Northern Territory's euthanasia legislation.

"It's compassionate, it's voluntary, it has the safeguards, it's about dignity," he told a Liberal state council meeting in 1996.

Mr Baillieu yesterday said Port Phillip Bay should be dredged only if the environment could be protected.

"We've said that we think the channel deepening needs to proceed but as far as we're concerned it is not going to proceed unless there is unequivocal evidence that it won't damage the bay," he said.

On Hazelwood, he said: "Victoria has substantial coal reserves (and) we are going to be using those into the future.

"What we need to do is to ensure that the outputs from our electricity generation in the (Latrobe Valley) are as clean as possible."

He said the Bracks Government had turned wind farms into a divisive issue.

"There is a place for wind (farms) but it isn't in coastal landscapes and it isn't in places where local communities don't want them," he said.

Mr Baillieu made the comments as he announced that a Liberal government would create a 98-hectare conservation and recreation park once the Frankston Reservoir was decommissioned at the end of the year.

Signalling that he would make the environment a key battlefield in the lead-up to the November 25 election, he challenged the Government to reveal its plans for the land.

Geoff Fraser, a spokesman for Environment Minister John Thwaites, said a working party involving local stakeholders was considering options and would report to the Government within weeks. He said there would be no commercial sell-off to developers.

Victorian Greens spokesman Greg Barber said it was encouraging that the new Liberal leader was talking about environmental issues.

"It is good that these issues are being put on the table and that (Mr Baillieu) is flagging that these issues are important," Mr Barber said.

"It is a bit too early to tell what the Liberals' approach will be, but we look forward to seeing the policies when they come."

A LIBERAL AGENDA

■ Supports voluntary euthanasia.

■ Supports decriminalisation of abortion.

■ Supports channel deepening, but only if it can be shown not to damage Port Phillip Bay.